Details About the Battle of Key Yemen Port

The United Nations made a failed attempt to evacuate more than 5,000 Yemenis from near the country’s largest port of Hodeidah, which is facing an imminent assault, according to a UN operational plan and discussions with aid officials.

The attempt on 27 April to move civilians to safer areas where they could receive assistance flopped. In the end, only a handful of locals showed up and the rest refused to move. “The whole thing was a failure,” said one humanitarian official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Despite the initial failure, UN officials and aid workers suggest such evacuations could become a significant new relief tactic in Yemen, where 22 million people need aid, more than eight million are severely short of food, and the looming battle at Hodeidah threatens to take the crisis to another level.

Moving civilians out of harm’s way is a “last resort” in the humanitarian toolbox – and the plan in Yemen would have been risky, analysts say.

“Any sort of movement of civilians has to be voluntary,” said Sahr Muhammedally, Middle East and North African director at CIVIC. “It has to be a consultative process in these areas, with local communities, local NGOs, to see where people will leave, and who they may leave behind.”

Others in the humanitarian community believe the UN and aid agencies were getting ahead of themselves by planning evacuations, and said more pressure should be applied to avoid a battle for the city.

The UN operational plan states that the relocation effort was coordinated by the UN after a request from the Houthi-controlled National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (NAMCHA) to help 1,600 households “trapped between front lines” as of 14 April.

It says that by 20 April violence had intensified in several areas in southern Hodeidah province, which runs along the Red Sea, prompting the action.

Trapped civilians were to be taken from a “mustering point” to a “humanitarian service point” around 40 kilometres from the front lines where emergency aid – including food, blankets, kitchen supplies, and medical assistance – would be provided. They were also to be given rental subsidies and money for transportation, although where they were to go after is unclear.

Several aid agency officials, speaking to IRIN on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the route was also to be “deconflicted”, meaning discussed and agreed with the Saudi-led coalition so they could put it on a no-strike list.

The UN was supposed to be joined by by partner agencies including Save the Children, Oxfam, and Action Against Hunger (ACF), IRIN understands. The Norwegian Refugee Council, which has a 64-page policy on if and how to do wartime evacuations “did not commit to a role”, according to an official.

“We know evacuations have taken place in Iraq and other conflict-affected countries with lessons from which we can learn, but this won’t necessarily mean the evacuations model can or should be replicated in Yemen,” said Suze Van Meegan, an adviser with the Norwegian Refugee Council based in Yemen.

“Humanitarian actors in Yemen are very conscious of the ethical maze involved and will continue to assess situations on a case-by-case basis.”

The UN’s humanitarian efforts in Yemen are heavily funded by the coalition itself – most recently a one billion dollar infusion from Riyadh and the UAE received in March. At the same time, the UN’s human rights office says more than 60 percent of nearly 16,500 civilian deaths and injuries monitored since March 2015 were due to coalition airstrikes.

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